In addition to visiting Halong Bay, I decided to spend a few days exploring Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city. And what an experience it was. The gap between the rich and poor is probably the largest I've seen in Asia. My first day there, I had Sunday brunch at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel, one of the most famous in Vietnam, and I was told the next day by my tour guide that the cost of my brunch was the equivalent of a month's salary for many.
Ho Chi Minh is still held in high regard in the country and a tour to his mausoleum was quite interesting. It was treated as a sacred temple. Women had to wear conservative clothing, nobody could wear sunglasses/take pictures and if you talked, you were shushed by one of the many military personnel.
Throughout the city are a number of temples and it's a very green city, with small parks and lakes scattered all around. The food in Vietnam is phenomenal and, besides eating the traditional "pho", I spent a lot of time checking out the local street food.
Less than 1/2 century after the war with the USA, the Vietnamese harbor no resentment and, in fact, the topic of conversation with me from everyone I encountered was, "What do you think about Trump?"
Click here for more photos from Hanoi.
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